Certain devices, referred to as routers, maintain tables of routing information that describe routes through the network. A “route” can generally be defined as a path between two locations on the network. Upon receiving an incoming data packet, the router examines destination information within the packet to identify the destination for the packet. Based on the destination, the router forwards the packet in accordance with a routing table.
Conventional routers typically include a mechanism, referred to herein as a management interface, for directly or remotely configuring the router. By interacting with the management interface, various clients, such as human users and automated scripts, can perform numerous configuration tasks. For example, the clients may configure interface cards of the router, adjust parameters for the supported network protocols, specify the physical components within the routing device, modify the routing information maintained by the router, access software modules and other resources residing on the router, and the like.
A distributed routing system is a system of devices (nodes) that together act as a single network router. Because distributed routing systems comprise multiple devices, distributed routing systems may be able to route larger volumes of network traffic than individual routing devices and may be able to provide more network services than individual routing devices. However, because distributed routing systems comprise multiple devices, distributed routing systems may be more difficult to configure than individual routing devices.